A buddy of mine was telling me that he thinks this year's LSU reminds him a lot of the Oregon team we stomped into a mudhole (as you may remember). Was saying had it not been for their WR's suspended (and injured? i forget...), this LSU team looks nearly identical to Oregon 14/15's high flying offense but subpar defense. At face value it seemed like maybe he had a point but I wanted to dig further and see, so I pulled up stats for both to see how they match up. Bottom line, it looks like LSU has a slightly better offense and a fairly comparable defense. It was pretty interesting to see how they compare though.
| Stat | LSU | Oregon | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passing yds/game | 390.0 | 312.5 | LSU |
| Rushing yds/game | 171.6 | 234.5 | Ore |
| Pass Comp. % | 76.5 | 68.8 | LSU |
| Yds/game | 561.6 | 547.0 | LSU |
| First downs/game | 27.7 | 27.1 | LSU |
| Turnovers/game | 1 | .7 | Ore |
| Top RB total yards | 1233 | 1365 | Ore* |
| Top QB total yards | 4366 | 4454 | Ore* |
| Top QB INT's | 6 | 4 | Ore |
| QB Rate | 203.0 | 191.7 | LSU |
| QB Rushing Yds | 248 | 770 | Ore |
| Rushing Yds/Att | 5.0 | 5.5 | Ore |
| Pass TD's/game | 3.5 | 3.9 | Ore |
| Rush TD's/game | 2.3 | 2.8 | Ore |
| Stat | LSU | Oregon | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass Completions / game | 17.5 | 23.4 | LSU |
| Pass Completion Rate | 51.7 | 60.4 | LSU |
| Pass yds/game | 221.4 | 264.3 | LSU |
| Pass TD's/game | 1.6 | 1.4 | Ore |
| Rush yds/game | 125.3 | 135.4 | LSU |
| Rush TD's allowed / game | 0.9 | 1.5 | LSU |
| Yds allowed/game | 346.7 | 429.7 | LSU |
| Yds/play given up | 5.1 | 5.5 | LSU |
| 1st downs by pass / game | 10.4 | 12.6 | LSU |
| 1st downs by rush / game | 6 | 8.8 | LSU |
| 1st downs allowed / game | 18.7 | 23.3 | LSU |
| Turnovers forced / game | 1.5 | 2.3 | Ore |
While LSU beats Oregon is most categories, the differentials do not represent huge advantages for LSU. Maybe he's on to something. What do you think?
